The French parliament\u2019s lower house on Thursday approved a resolution condemning as \u201cbloody and murderous repression\u201d the killing by Paris police of dozens of Algerians in a crackdown on a 1961 protest to support Algerian independence.
\nIn recent years France has made a series of efforts to come to terms with its colonial past in Algeria.
\nDozens of peaceful demonstrators died during a crackdown by Paris police on a protest by Algerians in 1961. The scale of the massacre was covered up for decades by French authorities before President Emmanuel Macron condemned it as \u201cinexcusable\u201d in 2021.
\nThe text of the resolution, which is largely symbolic, stressed the crackdown took place \u201cunder the authority of police prefect Maurice Papon\u201d and also called for the official commemoration of the massacre.
\nThe bill, put forward by Greens lawmaker Sabrina Sebaihi and ruling Renaissance party MP Julie Delpech, was approved by 67 lawmakers, mainly representatives of the left and Macron\u2019s party.
\nEleven voted against, all members of the far-right National Rally party.
\nSebaihi said the vote represented the \u201cfirst step\u201d toward the \u201crecognition of this colonial crime, the recognition of this state crime.\u201d
\nThe term \u201cstate crime\u201d however does not appear in the text of the resolution, which was jointly drafted by Macron\u2019s party and the Elysee Palace. The subject remains highly sensitive both in France and Algeria.
\nThe Paris police chief at the time, Papon, was in the 1980s revealed to have been a collaborator with the occupying Nazis in World War II and complicit in the deportation of Jews. He was convicted of crimes against humanity but later released.
\nOn the 60th anniversary of the bloodshed in 2021, Macron acknowledged that several dozen protesters had been killed, \u201ctheir bodies thrown into the River Seine.\u201d
\nThe precise number of victims has never been made clear and some activists fear several hundred could have been killed.
\n\u201cLet us spare a thought here today for these victims and their families, who have been hit hard by the spiral of violence,\u201d Dominique Faure, the minister for local and regional authorities, said on Thursday.
\nShe noted that efforts had been made in the past to recognize the massacre.
\nIn 2012, then president Francois Hollande paid \u201ctribute to the victims\u201d of a \u201cbloody crackdown\u201d on the men and women demonstrating for \u201cthe right to independence.\u201d
\nThe rally was called in the final year of France\u2019s increasingly violent attempt to retain Algeria as a north African colony, and in the middle of a bombing campaign targeting mainland France by pro-independence militants.
\nHowever, Faure expressed reservations about establishing a special day to commemorate the massacre, pointing out that three dates already existed to \u201ccommemorate what happened during the Algerian war.\u201d
\n\u201cMuch remains to be done to write this history, but in my opinion this is the only way to build a sincere and lasting reconciliation,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cI think it is important to let history do the work before considering a new day of commemoration specifically for the victims of October 17, 1961.\u201d
\nAlgerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune is set to travel to France for a state visit, scheduled for late September or early October, according to the Elysee.
\nHowever, National Rally lawmaker Frank Giletti criticized \u201cexcessive repentance\u201d based on \u201clies.\u201d
\n\u201cBy proposing this resolution, you are following in the footsteps of Emmanuel Macron, who has never stopped kneeling before the Algerian government, and who is working to mortify his own country through continuous repentance that has become unbearable,\u201d he said.
\nFrance has made several attempts over the years to heal the wounds with Algeria, but it refuses to \u201capologize or repent\u201d for the 132 years of often brutal rule that ended in 1962 after a devastating eight-year war.
\nFrench historians say half a million civilians and combatants died during the war for independence, 400,000 of them Algerian. The Algerian authorities say 1.5 million were killed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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